Cultures of Listening

Cheshire Academy for Lifelong Learning (CALL)
Keene State College
Spring Semester 2018
Instructor: Dr. Martin Roberts
Class: Friday 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Location: Morrison Hall 109
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Overview

How do we listen to music today? How is that different from how people listened to it a decade ago? A generation ago? A century ago? Why listen to music at all? This course provides an introduction to how to listen to music, and sound more generally, in a digital age of playlists and short attention spans. Rather than a traditional music-appreciation course, however, it focuses on listening itself as a cultural practice of the modern age. Topics include easy listening, hi-fi, and stereo in 1950s suburbia; jukeboxes and the rise of popular music; multitrack recording and headphone music in the 60s; portable listening from the Sony Walkman to the Apple iPod; elevator music, and ubiquitous listening; field recording and acoustic ecology; audiophile culture and the vinyl revival; streaming media and the playlist. Each class will be structured around relevant reading materials and a collective listening session and discussion. The course’s objective is to develop an understanding of listening as a deeply cultural practice, and to teach us to listen more attentively to the sounds of the world around us.

Instructor Bio

Dr. Martin Roberts holds a Ph. D. in French Studies from Cambridge University. He has taught at Harvard University, MIT, The New School, and NYU, and is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth College. He has published essays on world music, and his courses on music include Music as Communication and BeatleMedia: Popular Music and Cultural Heritage.

Reading Assignments

Readings are either available online or as PDF files for download and printing: see links below.

Recommended Reading

John Himmelman, Cricket Radio: Tuning In the Night-Singing Insects. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

Damon Krukowski, The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World. New York: The New Press, 2017.

Joseph Lanza, Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak,® Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong. Revised and expanded edition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004.

Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice. Lincoln, NE: Deep Listening Publications, 2005.

Ben Ratliff, Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen to Music Now. London: Penguin Books, 2016.

R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1994. Originally published as The Tuning of the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Paul Théberge, Kyle Devine, and Tom Everrett, eds., Living Stereo: Histories and Cultures of Multichannel Sound. New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.

David Toop, Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. London: Serpent’s Tail, 1995.

Resources

YouTube playlist

Schedule

Date	Topic	Read	Listen/Watch
W1
Fri 9 March 2018	Field Recordings	Steven Feld, Voices of the Rainforest Suikinkutsu article The Quiet American	John Himmelman, Cricket Radio Lafcadio Hearn, “Frogs” (Exotics and Retrospectives, 1898) Orca.fm
W2
Fri 16 March 2018	Deep Listening: Soundscapes & Acoustic Ecology	Kerry O’Brien, “Listening as Activism: The ‘Sonic Meditations’ of Pauline Oliveros” (New Yorker) Murray Schafer, Introduction to The Soundscape Kendall Wrightson, “An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology”	Deep Listening Band, The Ready Made Boomerang
W3
Fri 23 March 2018	Background Music: Easy Listening and Muzak	Keir Keightley, “Music for Middlebrows: Defining the Easy Listening Era, 1946-66” Tim Anderson, “Training the Listener: Stereo Demonstration Disks in an Emerging Consumer Market” Joseph Lanza, selected chs. from Elevator Music	Audio Fidelity Stereo Spectacular Demonstration and Sound Effects (1962)
W4
Fri 30 March 2018	Strange Sounds: Electronic Listening		The Delian Mode (documentary about Delia Derbyshire) “Sculptress of Sound: The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire” (BBC Radio 4, 29 March 2010) IMA fiction #4: Eliane Radigue (15-min. video) In-class: excerpt from Deconstructing Dad (documentary about Raymond Scott)
W5
Fri 6 April 2018	Music for Airports: Ubiquitous Listening	Geeta Dayal, excerpts from Another Green World	Brian Eno, Music For Airports Jake Tilson, Gate 63 (in class) Easy Jet, Jet Sounds (iTunes)
W6
Fri 13 April 2018	Listening In: Eavesdropping		Scanner (Robin Rimbaud): various recordings tba The Ghost Orchid (EVP compilation)
W7
Fri 20 April 2018	Headspace: Listening over Headphones	Damon Krukowski, “Headspace” (in The New Analog) Shuhei Hosokawa, “The Walkman Effect” Michael Bull, “Investigating the Culture of Mobile Listening”	Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon
W8
Fri 27 April 2018	Analog Listening in the Digital Age	Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder, seelcted chs. from Designed For Hi-Fi Living Ben Ratlif, selected chs. from Every Song Ever	Damon Krukowski, Ways of Hearing podcast